Since this time, the severe epidemic situation, coupled with the continuous adjustment of prevention and control policies, theaters have been closed and closed for a long time. In this cold winter in the physical and psychological sense, James Cameron returned with a new chapter of the masterpiece "Avatar", and "Avatar: The Way of Water" became a booster to save the film market.
On December 16, the movie "Avatar: The Way of Water" was officially released, and as of 7:41 p.m. on December 17, its total box office has exceeded 300 million yuan, and in only two days of release, it has achieved many achievements such as box office exceeding 100 million for 2 consecutive days, daily crown of attendance, daily crown of average people, and daily crown of film arrangement.
Of course, there are multiple factors behind this achievement, not only the love for the legendary movie "Avatar", but also the trust in the legendary director James Cameron, not only the regret that there have been no blockbuster works in the domestic film market for too long, but also the outbreak of the long-standing backlog of spiritual desire to go to the theater.
Since the audience's enthusiasm for watching movies is so high, what is the response to this "Avatar: The Way of Water"?
Up to now, Douban has a score of 8.3 points, and 84,000 people have made evaluations, of which 39.3% give 5 stars and 41.4% give 4 stars.
Although the results are good, they are still inferior to the 8.8 points of the first film, and then I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of this film and share it with you.
01
merit
With "Avatar" in front, in terms of visual presentation, there is naturally nothing to worry about, and the visual effects in "Avatar: The Way of Water" are still its biggest highlight.
Almost every frame in "The Way of Water" is very clear, real and stable, especially the depiction of the underwater world is extremely moving, such as the diversity of underwater biological movements and morphological changes, such as the color change and sparkling texture of the seawater, the brilliant and colorful underwater world is real and beautiful in Cameron's lens, and there is no flaw to be found.
At the same time, the various tools, mecha, and weapons in "The Way of Water" are extremely realistic. Thanks to the film's 3D stereoscopic imaging technology, these military equipment not only look right in front of you, but also the sound of gunfire in your ears, making the audience feel like they are at the scene of war. Compared with the few props or five-haired special effects in some sci-fi movies in recent years, "The Way of Water" is undoubtedly a giant-like masterpiece in the field of sci-fi films.
02
shortcoming
However, it is a pity that compared to the audiovisual experience, "The Way of Water" is much weaker in the film text.
First of all, the protagonist of "The Way of Water" transforms into Jack Sully's entire family, which includes seven people in total including adopted sons and adopted daughters, and has almost no first protagonist in the narrative perspective, which has become a group drama.
Group portrait dramas are generally more common in film and television dramas, and the audience can always slowly discover the personality charm of the characters and like a certain protagonist, and in a short time of film presentation, group portraits cause the audience's gaze to be scattered, it is difficult to substitute into it, and the characters in the story have resonance.
Secondly, it may be limited by too many characters, the film's portrayal of most characters is too one-sided, and many characters are reduced to a single tool person.
For example, Jack's eldest son is almost a tool man, often reprimanded by his father for not taking good care of his rebellious younger son, and finally dies to rescue Jack's adopted son Spider, and the emotional connection between the eldest son and his siblings is hardly reflected in the narrative.
For example, Jack's personality in "The Way of Water" is only a thin father.
In order to protect his family, he fled the original forest tribe to the island and reef tribe living by the sea; His way of educating children has a distinctly militarized style, harsh and mechanical; Every time he strikes, he comes from his children being in danger.
Except for his father's distinct identity, he seems to have no other personality, hobbies, and characteristics. In front of his children, he is saying that the parents are the only parents, let the children be in awe but unable to get close, this portrayal of parent-child relationship is too typical in East Asian society, the roles of father and child are too patterned, and the subtle touching points in the parent-child relationship are not depicted, making it difficult for the audience to see it with true feelings.
Of course, characterization is not without merit, and I think spiders are a successful example.
Spider is Jack's adopted son and the biological son of the villain of the two films, Colonel Quarić, and there is no doubt that Spider is a human, not the indigenous of the planet Pandora.
This character's identity is actually complex and contradictory, he belongs to humans, but he grew up on the planet Pandora, and he has never integrated into either side in his heart.
Therefore, after the spider became a captive, he returned to the planet Pandora with Avatar (hereinafter referred to as Quariqi) with the thoughts of Colonel Quaritch, and the process of getting along was quite harmonious, and even took him to tame the mount;
And in the final decisive battle, after the spider saw Knightley kill humans, his reaction was fear, hiding in a corner and not daring to make a sound;
When Quarić and Jack failed in a duel and sank to the bottom of the sea, the spider rescued him again, of course, the spider did not agree with what Quarić did, and eventually returned to the Jack family.
In this series of situations, the struggle of the spider character is just right, much more vivid than other characters.
The third pity is that the plot of "The Way of Water" is a bit clichéd.
First of all, the storyline progresses in a cliché way, basically relying on Jack's rebellious youngest son to constantly break into trouble, and then being caught by Quarić as a hostage to blackmail Jack, this method can be used once in a while, and the audience will inevitably get tired of using more.
Secondly, the conflict and contradiction of the story were conventional, originally explained that the earthlings wanted to migrate to the planet Pandora, which was inevitably the conflict and opposition between man and nature, race and race, and later inexplicably became Quarić's revenge drama, that is, the conflict and opposition between people, and the theme of people-to-people conflict is naturally not new, and Quarić's way of kidnapping children to force Jack to submit is even more tacky.
In addition, there are indeed all the storylines, behavioral logic, etc. that cannot withstand scrutiny in the film, and because they do not affect the overall viewing experience, they will not be studied in detail.
03
Write at the end
For anyone, the child is a weakness and an armor. Jack's children became his weakness, forcing the leader of the forest tribe to avoid the battle, but it was also the reason why he did not hesitate to fight for his life later.
Under Cameron's ultimate film technical language and warm brushstrokes, "The Way of Water" will put the audience in a moving and thrilling ocean world and examine the meaning of family bonds, which is undoubtedly successful from a film point of view.
Despite some flaws, "The Way of Water" is still worth watching in the cinema, and what we should cherish is that movie lovers are gathered in front of the big screen to enjoy this ultimate audiovisual feast together.
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